Programs
FELAE programs provide operational and fulfillment support and/or matching or supplemental funding to partner educational and nonprofit organizations to enable them to carry out campaigns to provide supplies or learning programs that have a direct or indirect impact of improving and enhancing the educational opportunities for disadvantaged individuals and uniquely impacted communities.
PERSONALIZED LEARNING THROUGH MICRO-SCHOOLING
FELAE is partnering with Quantum Group Education to develop and disseminate a model of personalized learning based on A New Paradigm of Education, where the educational program is customized to fit each individual student's learning needs, rather than expecting students to conform to a pre-existing system, or fail. Through use of personalized learning plans, created with input and participation from each student, their parent(s), and teacher(s), the educational programing will be adapted and customized to create a unique and empowering learning experience for each student, so they can learn better, easier, faster, and further.
This New Paradigm will consist of “class-less” schools with smaller, mixed-age cohorts of students supported by an entrepreneurial teacher in a hybrid approach that combines the flexibility and benefits of personalized learning that come with home schooling with the academic rigor of a college preparatory school. Cohorts of similarly-aged students will join together for group activities and then separate for their individualized lessons.
Current Projects
The HEMISPHERES ACADEMY Project
FELAE is proud to be supporting Hemispheres Academy, a project to design and launch a virtual school for U.S. Foreign Service and other globally mobile families that embodies many of the qualities our Personalized Learning Program seeks to promote.
TO DONATE to the Hemispheres Academy Project, click here.
The United States government has at any given time approximately 12,000 families serving overseas with the U.S. State Department and other agencies with a presence at our 171 U.S. embassies and 87 consulates around the globe. This is in addition to the thousands of military families stationed overseas, many also without access to DOD schools.
Children in Foreign Service and military families experience disruption as parent(s)' government assignments shift every 1-4 years, and can develop gaps in learning during short-term assignments, between assignments, and by shifting between different school systems and curriculum. Additional educational challenges for these families can include lack of suitable English-language educational options at some locations, very long commutes to school, and safety or safeguarding issues at the designated school.
Hemispheres Academy seeks to provide families with an alternate high-quality option for their children's education, one that provides a safe and continuous learning environment to offer stability during times of change. Further, the school will be staffed by spouses of those in the Foreign Service to create an atmosphere where students feel heard and supported by those who understand the unique context and challenges impacting globally nomadic families.
Hemispheres Academy will provide a home for families seeking excellence, stability, and flexibility, utilizing a student-centered environment and focus on community, along with individual coaching and personalized learning, to deliver a relevant, comprehensive curriculum aligned to US educational standards and the Framework for 21st Century Learning.
The Hemispheres Academy vision is to deepen the knowledge and talents of a globally mobile community of learners to find academic success, personal fulfillment, and meaningful connection through an uninterrupted learning experience, empowering them to be global citizens so they can make positive contributions to their families, communities, and the world.
“At Hemispheres Academy, our mission is to create a student-centered, technology-enabled learning environment in which our globally mobile students and families can engage in a standards-aligned, multidisciplinary, and community-focused learning experience.”
Click Here to download a flyer outlining the planned Hemispheres Academy program, and visit their website at www.HemispheresAcademy.com for more information about the project. Hemispheres Academy is working toward an August 2021 launch for grades 3-8, then expanding to grades K-12.
Through this program FELAE will help raise and donate funds to Hemispheres Academy to assist with the up-front costs of designing and launching the school. The project includes the following overlapping development phases:
- Phase 1: Technical Design, Incorporation, Marketing, and Accreditation
- Phase 2: Technology, Program, and Systems implementation
- Phase 3: Professional Development and Program Launch
- Phase 4: Flexible Ongoing Design and Expansion of the Educational Program
- Phase 5: Tuition and Technology Scholarships
TO DONATE to the Hemispheres Academy Project, click here then mark "Hemispheres Academy" under "Add special instructions to the seller".
FUTURE PROGRAMS
Personalized Learning Plan Project
Every student is unique as a learner, they are not randomly so. The Personalized Learning Plan (PLP) project seeks to develop a software platform that can facilitate the development, management, and maintenance of Personalized Learning Plans for each student. Through a matrix of features and choices, over a billion customized educational pathways can be created. This platform will be nimble and flexible, able to accommodate significant increases in both features and choices, modifiable and customizable to accommodate different educational features and multiple languages. Created as a software app with online portal access, it will easily be accessible on any smartphone, tablet, or computer by students, parents, and teachers.
The Personalize Learning Plan platform project includes the following overlapping development phases:
- Phase 1: Develop distinguishing and differentiating PLP features and choices
- Phase 2: Develop the PLP-producing software platform
- Phase 3: Release the platform to select schools and teachers for feedback and testing
- Phase 4: based on rounds of feedback improve platform features and performance while increasing system robustness
- Phase 5: Expand use to more schools and teachers and Provide ongoing support and maintenance.
TO DONATE to the Personalized Learning Plan Project, click here then mark "Personalized Learning Plans" under "Add special instructions to the seller".
The KNOWLEDGE TREE Project
From the student perspective, the progression of learning in school can seem like an opaque and baffling labyrinth of assignments, assessments and challenges, that if they just follow the winding path and prescribed directions, they will find themselves at a successful end and exit from school, recognized by a bit celebration we call graduation. While with personalized learning plans students are involved in selecting choices and pathways for their educational journey, it still can feel complicated and complex without a visual way to recognize and absorb the broader view.
FELAE is proud to be supporting the Knowledge Tree project, a project to design and develop a software program that utilizes a “Knowledge Tree” image for students to send down roots (knowledge they acquire), display their capabilities through sprouting branches and then growing them thicker as they learn to utilize their knowledge and capabilities together to prepare them for real world application. Using factual geometry, the “Knowledge Tree” program will utilize software actions to capture students' learning tasks and accomplishments in graphical form by use of programmatic logic and graphic display, so students literally can watch the impact of their learning grow.
TO DONATE to the Knowledge Tree Project, Click here then mark "Knowledge Tree" under "Add special instructions to the seller".
We Need You!
FELAE is seeking out nonprofit partners to see how we might best assist in providing funding and/or operational advice and support to existing or proposed programs and projects consistent with FELAE's mission, particularly those aligned or complementary to our existing programs.
Please Contact Us if you would like to learn more about partnering with us on a project that may align with one of our identified programs, and/or if you have ideas for new programs that would be compatible with our mission.
Questions? Please Contact Us
